A young girl, Alex, witnesses the murder of her family and is accused of the crime. However, the police officer who found her is married to a lawyer, and they work together to clear her name. But, she is hounded until she must reinvent herself. She works to start a new life, works for the law firm as an investigator. Alex is also still working to find out who killed her family. When she is asked to find info on a man, and the man later ends up dead, Alex sees similarities between his death and her family's murder. Another case of a young girl going missing, who was going to expose a judge's son's crime, and stop the judge's dream, is also on Alex's radar. As she gets closer to the truth, her life is in danger. Good, but I saw "the twist" a mile away. ( )

Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea was the final book of the season for my local mystery book club. It has really great reviews on Amazon but for me I felt it was pretty mediocre.

The beginning was really eventful and kept my interest. I liked the main character and thought she was credible. Most of the characters in the novel are realistic to a point and keep the novel flowing. The events are entertaining and not hard to follow. There was one character that could’ve been completely cut from the entire book and the story would’ve still made sense. But I understand why they kept her, she was the reporter that gave the book its title so she had to keep coming back around.

I did not like the odd back and forth in this book. There were a few time jumps in the main story and then a back story from multiple points of view. Unfortunately that back story gave away who the killer was in the first and second flash backs which is what made me lose interest in the middle. I just wanted to see how she’d figure it out and wrap up the storyline. The ending isn’t really a shock if you paid attention to the flashbacks. I was surprised how many good reviews this book got, a lot of people didn’t see it coming.

I’d recommend it for a read once, probably wouldn’t read it again.

★★★ ( )

*Publication Day - March 28, 2023*

In 2013, seventeen-year-old Alexandra Quinlan was the only member of her family found unharmed after her parents and younger brother are gunned down by an unknown assailant in their own home. Unfortunately for her, Alexandra was treated as a suspect and taken into custody. An over-ambitious journalist remarked on her "empty eyes" when she was being escorted out of her own home by the police in a state of shock. “Empty Eyes” was a name that stuck as did the rumors of her guilt, despite the police having found no solid ground to convict her and her winning a defamation case against the State. The police branded it a home invasion gone wrong and never pursued the case much further. Alexandra eventually left town but never stopped looking for the person who killed her family, meticulously searching for any leads that shed a light on what happened that night. She eventually returns after her past comes to haunt her resulting in a messy situation abroad. Fast forward to 2023, and we have Alexandra, now Alex Armstrong, working as a legal investigator for Garrett Lancaster, the same lawyer who represented her in her defamation case and has been a guardian, friend and well-wisher. Alex’s work involves investigating potential clients for the firm, and finding any evidence proving their guilt means the firm does not accept said client’s case. An investigation into a client accused of embezzlement triggers a sequence of events that eventually is found to have a connection with what happened to Alex’s family.

Having read and enjoyed "Twenty Years Later" by Charlie Donlea, I was excited to be able to read an advance copy of his latest offering. Those Empty Eyes starts strong and I did enjoy how the story was progressing up until the 30% mark after which several sub-plots (at least one of which was completely unnecessary and served no purpose other than distracting the reader’s attention from the central plot) are introduced into the story. With so many threads and tropes (ripped from the headlines gets tiring after a point!), the plot got convoluted and farfetched. I continued with this story because I really wanted to know who the murderer was and I liked a few of the strong female characters in the mix. The ending took me by surprise, proving my predictions wrong (I love it when that happens, so points for that!). I enjoy complex and intricately plotted thrillers but this one just felt like several books somewhat haphazardly squeezed into a single narrative, which detracted from my overall reading experience. Overall, though I didn’t completely dislike Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea, I was a tad disappointed.

Many thanks to author Charlie Donlea, Kensington Books and NetGalley for the much-appreciated digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. ( )

A terrific, complex thriller with many twists and turns that kept me quickly turning pages. I was hooked right from the beginning!
Well plotted with excellent character development.
This is the.second novel I have read by this Author and I am now a huge fan. ( )

"Those Empty Eyes" by Charlie Donlea was a well-written novel that had my attention from the first page to the last. Without giving anything away, when the murderers were revealed, I was pretty surprised. There were clues that revealed one of the murders towards the end of the novel. However, the second murderer was totally unexpected and really added to the enjoyment of this novel. The ending was also very creative and left the reader content with the outcome (at least in my opinion). Even though "Those Empty Eyes" is a fiction, Mr. Donlea did an amazing job of developing a believable plot, characters, and setting. I had the entire book read in under two days. I'm looking forward to reading additional novels by Mr. Donlea! ( )